| Venezuela ex-intel chief missing in Spain ahead of US extradition: police Posted: 13 Nov 2019 01:46 AM PST  Venezuela's former military intelligence chief has gone missing in Spain just days after a court approved a request for his extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges, police said Wednesday. "They are currently looking for him," said a spokeswoman for Spain's national police, referring to General Hugo Armando Carvajal. Judicial sources said police had gone to his house in Madrid after Friday's court decision but could not find him.
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| William Taylor laughs at GOP question if Giuliani channel was 'as outlandish as it could be' Posted: 13 Nov 2019 12:15 PM PST  Republican counsel Steve Castor came to Wednesday's impeachment hearing with a curious line of questioning: could something extremely unusual have, theoretically, been even more unusual?Castor, the lawyer who questioned diplomat William Taylor on behalf of House Republicans during the public impeachment hearing, asked about what Taylor had previously described as a "confusing and unusual arrangement for making U.S. policy toward Ukraine" in the Trump administration, with there being a secondary, "highly irregular" channel including Rudy Giuliani operating outside of formal diplomatic processes.But Castor's apparent defense of this irregular channel is that it could have, in theory, been more irregular."In fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, it's not as outlandish as it could be," Castor said to Taylor. "Is that correct?"Taylor laughed at this question while agreeing that, well, sure, it "could be" more outlandish. But the line of questioning didn't go quite as Castor likely planned. After Castor tried to get Taylor to say that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's involvement in the secondary channel also was "certainly not outlandish," Taylor didn't exactly agree, responding that it's "a little unusual for the U.S. ambassador to the EU to play a role in Ukraine policy.""Okay," Castor said, making one more attempt by asking, "It might be irregular, but it's certainly not outlandish." This time, a seemingly baffled but amused Taylor just smiled. > "This irregular channel of diplomacy is not as outlandish as it could be, is that correct?" GOP counsel asks William Taylor. > > Taylor agrees, but adds, "It's a little unusual for the US ambassador to EU to play a role in Ukraine policy." https://t.co/YHsiIaIXhs pic.twitter.com/Vp6mO6PhvF> > -- ABC News (@ABC) November 13, 2019More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
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| Climate change is damaging the health of the world's children and threatens lifelong impact, report says Posted: 13 Nov 2019 03:31 PM PST  Climate change is already damaging children's health worldwide and could shape the well-being of an entire generation.
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| Chinese, other students flee Hong Kong as violence worsens Posted: 13 Nov 2019 02:59 AM PST  University students from mainland China and Taiwan are fleeing Hong Kong, while those from three Scandinavian countries have been moved or urged to leave as college campuses become the latest battleground in the city's 5-month-long anti-government unrest. Marine police used a boat Wednesday to help a group of mainland students leave the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which remained barricaded by demonstrators after violent clashes with police on Tuesday.
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| U.S. Supreme Court declines to shield gun maker from Sandy Hook lawsuit Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:11 AM PST  The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to the firearms industry, rejecting Remington Arms Co's bid to escape a lawsuit by families of victims aiming to hold the gun maker liable for its marketing of the assault-style rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre that killed 20 children and six adults. The justices turned away Remington's appeal of a ruling by Connecticut's top court to let the lawsuit proceed despite a federal law that broadly shields firearms manufacturers from liability when their weapons are used in crimes. The lawsuit will move forward at a time of high passions in the United States over the issue of gun control.
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| An Air India flight was delayed nearly 12 hours after a stowaway rat was spotted in the cabin Posted: 13 Nov 2019 08:30 AM PST  "The rat was located and trapped. Then the aircraft was fumigated," a representative from Air India said, according to Indian local media.
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| How Did Nazi Germany Crush France During World War II So Easily? Posted: 11 Nov 2019 06:30 PM PST  Though Germany eventually lost World War II and France again ended up on the victorious side, the leadership traits demonstrated before and during the battle in 1940 are textbook examples of what makes for great leadership—and what kind of leadership leads to defeat.
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| Rep. Connolly says Democrats already have 'smoking gun' to impeach Trump Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:12 PM PST  A Democratic lawmaker who attended most of the closed-door depositions over the past month said that while public hearings will be instructive for Americans, President Trump has already given Congress all the evidence it needs to impeach him.
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| The U.S. Navy canceled a routine Black Sea operation after Trump complained that it was hostile to Russia Posted: 13 Nov 2019 11:01 AM PST  Christopher Anderson, an aide to Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, testified that the White House canceled a Navy freedom-of-navigation operation in the Black Sea after President Trump complained to then-national security adviser John Bolton about a CNN report that framed the operation as a counter to Russia, Politico reported.
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| 2020 Subaru Outback vs. 2019 Honda Passport in Photos Posted: 13 Nov 2019 04:59 AM PST |
| A gun known as the 'cop-killer' used in killing of Ohio detective during drug raid, officials said Posted: 13 Nov 2019 11:44 AM PST  Detective Jorge DelRio was working as part of a DEA task force when he was shot in the face after entering a home. He died days later.
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| Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:10 PM PST  A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. Tuesday's ruling in U.S. District Court came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion at U.S. ports of entry. ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said the ruling strengthens the Fourth Amendment protections of international travelers who enter the United States every year.
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| Poland seizes two for plotting Breivik-style attacks on Muslims Posted: 13 Nov 2019 07:56 AM PST ![Poland seizes two for plotting Breivik-style attacks on Muslims]( "Poland seizes two for plotting Breivik-style attacks on Muslims") Polish agents arrested two people accused of planning attacks against Muslims inspired by Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik and suspected white supremacist Brenton Tarrant in New Zealand, the security service said on Wednesday. The arrests follow a spate of attacks involving white supremacists targeting ethnic and religious minorities across the globe. Far-right groups have grown in strength in Poland, the largest of the European Union's post-communist states.
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| Trump adviser Stephen Miller injected white nationalist agenda into Breitbart, investigation reveals Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:55 AM PST  Emails to former Breitbart writer show Miller focused on inserting white nationalist talking points to shape 2016 election coverageStephen Miller, senior adviser to Donald Trump, walks across the South Lawn of the White House on 4 November. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPASenior Trump adviser Stephen Miller shaped the 2016 election coverage of the hard right-wing website Breitbart with material drawn from prominent white nationalists, Islamophobes, and far-right websites, according to a new investigative report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).Miller also railed against those wishing to remove Confederate monuments and flags from public display in the wake of Dylann Roof's murderous 2015 attack on a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and praised America's early 20th-century race-based, restrictionist immigration policies.Emails from Miller to a former Breitbart writer, sent before and after he joined the Trump campaign, show Miller obsessively focused on injecting white nationalist-style talking points on race and crime, Confederate monuments, and Islam into the far-right website's campaign coverage, the SPLC report says.Miller, one of the few surviving initial appointees in the administration, has been credited with orchestrating Trump's restrictionist immigration policies.The SPLC story is based largely on emails provided by a former Breitbart writer, Katie McHugh. McHugh was fired by Breitbart over a series of anti-Muslim tweets and has since renounced the far right, telling the SPLC that the movement is "evil".However, throughout 2015 and 2016, as the Trump campaign progressed and she became an increasingly influential voice at Breitbart, McHugh told the SPLC that Miller urged her in a steady drumbeat of emails and phone calls to promote arguments from sources popular with far-right and white nationalist movements.Miller's emails had a "strikingly narrow" focus on race and immigration, according to the SPLC report.At various times, the SPLC reports, Miller recommendations for McHugh included the white nationalist website, VDare; Camp of the Saints, a racist novel focused on a "replacement" of European whites by mass third-world immigration; conspiracy site Infowars; and Refugee Resettlement Watch, a fringe anti-immigrant site whose tagline is "They are changing America by changing the people".McHugh also says that in a phone call, Miller suggested that she promote an analysis of race and crime featured on the website of a white nationalist organization, American Renaissance. The American Renaissance article he mentioned was the subject of significant interest on the far right in 2015.In the two weeks following the murder of nine people at a church in Charleston by the white supremacist Dylann Roof as Americans demanded the removal of Confederate statues and flags, Miller encouraged McHugh to turn the narrative back on leftists and Latinos."Should the cross be removed from immigrant communities, in light of the history of Spanish conquest?" he asked in one email on 24 June."When will the left be made to apologize for the blood on their hands supporting every commie regime since Stalin?" he asked in another the following day.When another mass shooting happened in Oregon in October 2015, Miller wrote that the killer, Chris Harper-Mercer "is described as 'mixed race' and born in England. Any chance of piecing that profile together more, or will it all be covered up?"Miller repeatedly brings up President Calvin Coolidge, who is revered among white nationalists for signing the 1924 Immigration Act which included racial quotas for immigration.In one email, Miller remarks on a report about the beginning of Immigrant Heritage Month by writing: "This would seem a good opportunity to remind people about the heritage established by Calvin Coolidge, which covers four decades of the 20th century." The four decades in question is the period between the passage of the Immigration Act and the abolition of racial quotas.Miller also hints at conspiratorial explanations for the maintenance of current immigration policies. Mainstream coverage of the 50th anniversary of the removal of racial quotas in immigration policy had lacked detail, Miller believed, because "Elites can't allow the people to see that their condition is not the product of events beyond their control, but the product of policy they foisted onto them.".Miller used a US government email address during the early part of the correspondence, when he was an aide to senator Jeff Sessions, and then announced his new job on the Trump campaign, and a new email address, to recipients including McHugh.As well as McHugh, recipients of his emails included others then at Breitbart who subsequently worked in the Trump administration, including Steve Bannon and current Trump aide, Julia Hahn.
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| German air force rejects delivery of two Airbus planes Posted: 13 Nov 2019 07:08 AM PST  Germany's air force said Wednesday it had refused delivery of two Airbus A400M transport planes over technical faults, saying bolts holding the propellers on some already operational aircraft were loose. Repeated technical problems have dogged the A400M programme, a turboprop transport aircraft developed jointly for Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.
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| For Bill Taylor, first impeachment witness, 'everything's easy after Vietnam' Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST  Most Americans came to know Taylor on Oct. 3, when Democrats released text messages that showed him calling it "crazy to withhold security assistance [to Ukraine] for help with a political campaign."
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| Damaged Hard Rock hotel will be completely demolished, New Orleans officials say Posted: 13 Nov 2019 11:35 AM PST  The demolition process will take nine weeks, followed by three months of cleanup. The building's owners will cover all costs.
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| Pilot receives $300K in wrongful arrest Posted: 12 Nov 2019 11:20 AM PST  An airline pilot who was arrested after being seen naked in his hotel room overlooking Denver International Airport has been awarded a $300,000 wrongful arrest settlement from the city.
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| 'Words matter': Trump accused of fuelling attacks on Hispanics as violent hate crimes hit 16-year high Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:45 PM PST  Violent hate crimes have climbed to a 16-year year high in the US, with a surge in attacks on Hispanics, according to FBI data.Reports of hate crimes dipped slightly in 2018 from an alarming increase the previous year, but violence rose as attacks increasingly targeting people instead of property.
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| Officer: Miranda failure for Iowa murder suspect a mistake Posted: 12 Nov 2019 09:01 PM PST  A police officer who obtained a confession from a suspect in the disappearance and death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts said Wednesday that she made an honest mistake when she failed to read him his complete legal rights. Officer Pamela Romero testified that she tried to read Cristhian Bahena Rivera a Miranda warning during the Aug. 20, 2018, interrogation but didn't realize until later that she left one part out, failing to tell him that his statements could be used against him in court. After several more hours of questioning, Rivera led officers to a cornfield where they discovered Tibbetts' body underneath leaves and stalks.
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| Korean survivor says Japan's no-show at 'comfort women' case in Seoul lacks honor Posted: 13 Nov 2019 02:47 AM PST  A South Korean woman who had been forced to work in a Japanese wartime military brothel said Japan lacked honor for failing to attend a South Korean court on Wednesday as it began hearing a civil case brought against its government by a group of victims. "I am a living proof of history," said Lee Yong-soo, the 91-year-old survivor, her voice quaking with emotion as she addressed a news conference held near the courthouse, before proceedings began. Reminders of Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula are inflammatory for both sides.
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| Inside Hezbollah: How Lebanon protests are breaking ‘fear barrier’ Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:55 AM PST ![Inside Hezbollah: How Lebanon protests are breaking 'fear barrier']( "Inside Hezbollah: How Lebanon protests are breaking 'fear barrier'") Hezbollah amassed great power even as its fighters died in Syria. But the bold uprising in Lebanon has brought quiet Shiite grumblings into the open.
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| See Photos of the 2020 Jeep Wrangler EcoDiesel Posted: 11 Nov 2019 09:01 PM PST |
| Why China Loves Russia's Su-35 Fighter (And Might Buy Even More of Them) Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:13 AM PST  But a larger question looms.
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| Is Nikki Haley auditioning to replace Pence on Trump's 2020 ticket? Posted: 12 Nov 2019 08:34 AM PST  Less than three months ago, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations tried to tamp down speculation that she might replace the vice president on Trump's 2020 ticket. But multiple political observers say her new book tour is doubling as an audition for the role.
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| Asylum-seekers in Greece, Italy face years of limbo: EU audit Posted: 13 Nov 2019 08:07 AM PST  Asylum-seekers crowded into "hotspots" in Greece and Italy face limbo that can drag on for years because of legal bottlenecks and poorly performing EU schemes, a report said Wednesday. The document, by the EU's European Court of Auditors, also found that two agencies meant to assist the two countries with their overflowing camps and caseloads were failing in their missions, partly because of insufficient support from member states. The audit looked at EU projects meant to alleviate the pressure on the so-called hotspots -- camps on Greek islands and in Italy, where migrants' asylum claims were examined and designated refugees were meant to be vetted for relocation to other EU states.
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| California launches investigation into public safety power shutoffs by PG&E, other utilities Posted: 13 Nov 2019 01:06 PM PST  The investigation will focus on PG&E;, responsible for lines that sparked the deadly Camp Fire, along with Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.
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| Report: Loud fight with detective preceded chief's death Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:37 PM PST  A maintenance man checking on a noise complaint at a Florida beachfront hotel Sunday night walked into the room where a small-town Oklahoma police detective killed his boss in a drunken brawl, authorities said. The noises coming from room 527 at the Hilton on Pensacola Beach on Sunday night were so loud that the couple staying next door asked to switch rooms, according to an arrest report released to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Miller was later pronounced dead.
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| The US is being hit by a frigid, early cold snap that has killed at least 6 people and could break 100 temperature records Posted: 13 Nov 2019 03:50 AM PST  The National Weather Service said the unseasonal cold air, which spread from Kansas to Minnesota to Kentucky to New York, has brought an early winter.
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| Michael Avenatti faces new fraud charge in Nike extortion case Posted: 13 Nov 2019 04:13 PM PST ![Michael Avenatti faces new fraud charge in Nike extortion case]( "Michael Avenatti faces new fraud charge in Nike extortion case") Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled a new fraud charge against lawyer Michael Avenatti, accusing him of lying to a client as part of his alleged effort to extort Nike Inc. The prosecutors also dropped two counts of conspiracy against Avenatti from the case, which was first made public in March, according to a superseding indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan. "I am extremely pleased that the two counts alleging I engaged in a conspiracy against Nike have just been dismissed by Trump's DOJ," Avenatti wrote on Twitter, referring to the U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump.
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| Former Bolivia president Evo Morales flees to Mexico as country descends into chaos Posted: 12 Nov 2019 02:28 AM PST  Former Bolivian president Evo Morales has flown to Mexico after fleeing his South American homeland which has descended into chaos following an allegedly rigged election.
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| ‘Watchmen’ brings 1921 Tulsa massacre to the fore: Three questions Posted: 13 Nov 2019 02:31 AM PST !['Watchmen' brings 1921 Tulsa massacre to the fore: Three questions]( "'Watchmen' brings 1921 Tulsa massacre to the fore: Three questions") The massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was largely forgotten, even by those living in the state. But as many as 300 black people died.
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| Socialism Stinks: The Unfortunate Lessons of Venezuela's Central Planning Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:29 PM PST  Socialism doesn't work.
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| Nunes Ties Impeachment Effort to Dems’ Russian Collusion Allegations: ‘We’re Supposed to Take These People at Face Value?’ Posted: 13 Nov 2019 08:32 AM PST  As the first public impeachment hearing began Wednesday, Representative Devin Nunes said Democrats' new quid pro quo accusations against President Trump should not be taken at "face value" given that the party's previous allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia have been discredited."After the spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax … in which they spent years denouncing any Republican whoever shook hands with a Russian, on July 25th they turned on a dime and now claim the real malfeasance is Republican's dealings with Ukraine," Nunes, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said in his opening statement."Now we're supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations," Nunes added.The first public hearing will feature testimony from George Kent, a top State Department official in charge of Ukraine, and William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.Democrats began the impeachment inquiry last month with a series of closed-door hearings after a member of the intelligence community filed a whistleblower report expressing concern about Trump's July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. During the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate allegations that Joe Biden used his position as vice president to help a Ukrainian gas company avoid a corruption probe, soon after Biden's son Hunter was appointed to the board.Days before filing the report, the whistleblower contacted a House Intelligence Committee staff member, who shared the whistleblower's concerns with Democratic committee chairman Adam Schiff.Schiff previously denied the committee had received early information about the whistleblower's concerns, saying, "We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower," adding that he and his staff "would like to."In his opening statement, Nunes demanded answers to what he said are three "crucial" questions, first, the full extent of Democrats' prior coordination with the whistleblower; second, the full extent of Ukraine's alleged election meddling against the Trump campaign; and third, the details surrounding Hunter Biden's position at the Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, and whether his position influenced the Obama administration."The main performance — the Russia hoax — has ended, and you've been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel," the California Republican told Wednesday's witnesses.
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| Meteor streaks through the sky over St. Louis Posted: 12 Nov 2019 07:40 PM PST  Hundreds reported seeing a bright flash of light across the sky in at least two counties
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| Study: Half Europe’s unauthorized migrants in Germany, UK Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:50 AM PST  At least 3.9 million unauthorized migrants — and possibly as many as 4.8 million — lived in Europe in 2017 with half of them in Germany and the United Kingdom, according to a study published Wednesday. The Pew Research Center said the number grew from 2014, when about 3-3.7 million resided in Europe, and peaked in 2015-16 during the refugee crisis when some 1.3 million people arrived, mostly from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, the European Union and Turkey signed a deal designed to keep millions of migrants in Turkey from coming to Europe, and many asylum seekers, especially Syrians, received asylum or residency rights in Germany and other European countries.
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| Cows swept off island during Hurricane Dorian found after swimming for miles Posted: 13 Nov 2019 08:06 AM PST  Cows missing for two months were located on North Carolina's Outer Banks after 'mini tsunami' carried wildlife awayCows are recognized as adept swimmers comfortable with covering a few hundred yards – but swimming miles of open water in a hurricane is outside their general range. Photograph: Dawn Damico/AlamyThree cows swept off an island during the raging storm of Hurricane Dorian have been located on North Carolina's Outer Banks after apparently swimming four miles during the storm.The extraordinary swimming bovines were grazing on their home of Cedar Island when the giant storm hit on 6 September, generating an 8ft "mini tsunami" that swept away wildlife, including 28 wild horses and about 17 cows from the island's herd.They were presumed dead, but Cape Lookout National Seashore staff spotted one of the cows on another barrier island a month after the storm. That sighting was followed by two more, apparently grazing peaceably. A picture of the rangy-looking trio is now on Facebook.Cows are recognized as adept swimmers comfortable with covering a few hundred yards. But swimming miles of open water in a hurricane is outside their general range of expertise.Cape Lookout Park spokesman BG Horvat said the animals were lucky not to have been swept out into the Atlantic."I'll say it's about four miles across Core Sound," Horvat told McClatchy news service. "Remember, the cows and all the horses were swept away with the water surging back. Who knows exactly, but the cows certainly have a gripping story to share."Locals are now working on a plan to recover the animals – presumably without making them swim.
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| 25 charged with over brutal killing of Bangladesh student Posted: 13 Nov 2019 06:15 AM PST  Some 25 people, many members of Bangladesh's ruling Awami League party, were charged with murder Wednesday over the brutal killing last month of a university student who criticised the government on social media. The battered body of 21-year-old Abrar Fahad was found in his dormitory hours after he wrote a post on Facebook slamming Dhaka for signing a water-sharing deal with India. Police said he was beaten to death by fellow students -- many members of the ruling Awami League's university branch.
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| Hillary Clinton says she is being urged by 'many, many, many people' to run in 2020 Posted: 12 Nov 2019 04:42 PM PST  Hillary Clinton on Tuesday declined to rule out launching a future presidential campaign after her two failed bids, saying "many, many, many people" were pressuring her to enter the race.
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| Japanese emperor to spend night with goddess in last major accession rite Posted: 13 Nov 2019 03:00 PM PST ![Japanese emperor to spend night with goddess in last major accession rite]( "Japanese emperor to spend night with goddess in last major accession rite") Japanese Emperor Naruhito will be ushered into a dark wooden hall on Thursday night to celebrate his last major accession rite after becoming emperor this spring: spending the night with a goddess. The "Daijosai" rite centres on Amaterasu Omikami - the sun goddess from whom conservatives believe the emperor is descended. It is the most overtly religious of the series of rituals marking Naruhito's taking over after his father Akihito's abdication.
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| Mysterious Professor at Heart of Russian Investigation Returns for Impeachment Proceedings Posted: 13 Nov 2019 12:51 PM PST  Chip Somodevilla/GettyROME—Joseph Mifsud, the erstwhile professor from Malta whose promise to help then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign aide George Papadopoulos get his hands on Russian "dirt" about Hillary Clinton has reportedly resurfaced. On Wednesday, the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera posted a six-minute audio recording in English it says Mifsud sent from an anonymous email account late Tuesday night. A short time later, the Italian news agency Adnkronos published a clip it received. Whether other publications received the Mifsud missive is not clear, nor is the more important question of whether it's genuine. Last summer Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham traveled to Rome twice to learn what they could from Italian secret service officials about the professor as part of their investigation into the Russian investigation led by Robert Mueller. Mifsud has not been seen for two years and speculation has swirled around the question of whether he is still alive and, if he is, who is supporting him.Barr Went to Rome to Hear a Secret Tape From Joseph Mifsud, the Professor Who Helped Ignite the Russia ProbeThe Corriere clip starts with a brief introduction. "Today is the 11th of November 2019" and continues, "I am Joseph Mifsud speaking, this is my voice." It does sound like other recordings of Mifsud.He goes on to say that he has had "no contact with friends and family for a number of months now." While he doesn't say where he is or where he has been, it is clear that—if this is Mifsud—he hopes that he can come back out from under whatever rock he has been hiding under for the last two years. "It is extremely important finally … that I am given the possibility of coming back to life," the voice says. "It has been very, very difficult for me to live like this, without any human contact, without a human experience, and I believe that I should be given the opportunity to do that. It is extremely important that somebody somewhere decides to let me breathe again."He does not say who is keeping him from resurfacing or why he has chosen to go underground. But he does make a laborious attempt to explain that he is "just a networker" who connects people who might be interested in "similar topics.""It's been almost two years to date that the whole issue—blown up issue—has been presented to the world's media and on the world's stage, as if I had something to do with issues concerning countries," the man says, without naming which countries or issues those are. He then goes on to deny infiltrating "programs, contacts or any other institutions of the world."The Mifsud voice does not mention that he has been accused of being a Russian asset in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Nor does me mention Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about their interactions. Nor does the man who says he is Mifsud say he has also been accused by deep state conspiracy theorists that he was sent as a lure to trap Trump by then-President Barack Obama. Instead, he calls all accusations that he is anything but an academic absurd. "I try to bring one group in contact with another," he said. "Not, not repeat and underline, nobody in any service, secret service, intelligence service or anybody of this sort." He then goes on to qualify that if he had met any such spooks, he didn't know it. "If I had any contact with this, I have not known that this person or that person had any link with any institution," the man claiming to be Mifsud says. Mifsud's own lawyer, Stephan Roh, has insinuated that his client was forced into hiding by Italian intelligence officials to avoid compromising the investigation into Mueller's investigation. "I think Mifsud is still alive, he was at least until last Spring. I know he was hiding because he feared for his life, I also know that someone forced him to hide," Roh told Italian news agency Adnkronos last year. "Mifsud had to disappear, because he could compromise the whole investigation of Mueller against Trump."Here's How Dumb Bill Barr's Great Mifsud Conspiracy Story Really IsThe person on tape doesn't necessarily seem to agree with that assessment. Instead, he says he was not the bearer of dirt on anyone to anyone. "It was never my intent to try to obtain any information to pass from one side to the other," the voice says. "I have never done so because II was never in possession with any information which would be useful to one side or another."The Adnkronos clip rambles, with the man purporting to be Mifsud seemingly trying to convince whoever is listening that he wants out of hiding. "I have kept out of the limelight. I have tried to keep myself busy—mentally. I'm going to be 60 in April … I need to have contacts with my ailing parents … I've been living a very lonely life."He goes on to say, "I have never been paid by anybody to commit any intrusion into the privacy of another," he says. As noted, there is no independent verification of the recording's validity. One might think a video would be far more convincing.BuzzFeed quotes the investigative journalism website Belingcat's analysis that it is likely Mifsud based on words Mifsud is known to mispronounce, and the site called his former girlfriend who told it she was "certain" it was her former lover. Adnkronos, on the other hand, sent the audio tape to Mfisud's Swiss lawyer Stephan Roh, who says it is not him. If the voice does indeed belong to the mysterious professor, or even if it does not, it begs the question why the name Mifsud would resurface on the eve of the open impeachment hearings into Trump over the Ukraine? His broad denials prove nothing. His adamant insistence that he has "been a networker all my life" proves even less. Still, the timing is suspicious and mysterious. Who benefits? Until we know more, impossible to tell.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt Posted: 12 Nov 2019 03:45 PM PST ![Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt]( "Italian ship attacked by pirates in Mexico, two crew hurt") Pirates attacked an Italy-flagged offshore supply vessel in the southern Gulf of Mexico, injuring two crew members, the Mexican Navy said on Tuesday, in the latest outbreak of robbery and piracy to hit oil platforms and infrastructure in the area. Owned by Italian offshore contractor Micoperi, the boat is a supply vessel for Mexico's oil industry. Micoperi and the Italian embassy in Mexico did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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| From 'Anonymous,' key excerpts from inside Trump White House on Putin, Hillary Posted: 12 Nov 2019 05:20 PM PST  Key excerpts from "A Warning," a book by an anonymous senior administration official about President Trump and his administration.
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| A History of Modern American Architecture Posted: 13 Nov 2019 02:28 PM PST |
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